For many years, the sport fishing industry has made extensive use of spinners as an important part of many different fishing lures. Spinners are generally used to attract fish to the hook of the lure, and this is accomplished by the flash of light and the vibration caused by the spinner. Typically, a spinner is attached to a shank portion of a lure by means of a clevis, for example, and as the lure moves through the water, the spinner rotates, reflecting light and causing vibration. The speed of rotation is dependent upon the speed of retrieve and the velocity of any current through which the lure is being retrieved.
One common technique for enhancing the fish attracting ability of spinners is to alter the appearance, and thus the "flash" of the blade. The term "flash" refers to the nature of light reflection caused as the blade spins. Often, the blade is a polished metal blade, much like a mirror in appearance, in order that a high percentage of light impinging on the blade is reflected. Of course, as the blade spins, the light is reflected in many different directions. Improvements, enhancements and variations have been made to this aspect of spinners by creating different finishes on the blade. For example, painted finishes reflect light of different colors, and hammered blades reflect the light in more directions.
Other variations on spinners relate to the shape of the blade. These variations affect the nature of the vibrations generated as the blade spins in the water. Some blades are slightly oval in shape, while others take on a more elongated or "willow leaf" shape, and others a more "tear drop" shape. Depending upon the shape, such blades are known as "Colorado" blades, "Indiana" blades, or the like. Further, these different shapes are available in a variety of different sizes, in order that they may be tailored to the fishing conditions and the particular lure with which they are used. In essence, these blade variations are two dimensional in nature, and the variations can all be seen in a top view of the blades. The blades are of essentially uniform thickness. Even in the case of so-called "hammered" finishes, only uniform local variations are provided.
Most blades are cupped in their cross-sectional configuration, and thus changes in the shape necessarily changes the shape of the cupping, and thus the nature of the rotation of the blade in the water.
Multiple blades are also frequently used to increase the attractiveness of the lure to fish by increasing both the flash and the vibration.
In recent years, efforts have been made to generate even more vibration in the fishing lures using spinners, by modifying the lures themselves. For example, by mounting the blades on flexible, rather than rigid, shafts a greater amount of vibration is generated and is transmitted to the body of the lure and to the water. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,640,041 issued on Feb. 3, 1987 to the present inventor discloses such a fishing lure using single or multiple blades mounted on a shaft of reduced diameter, thereby allowing greater flexibility in the shaft. Other patents have used spring-like arms or plastic arms connected to the metal shafts to accomplish a similar effect.
One of the most popular type of fishing lure using spinners is commonly known as a "spinnerbait." This is the type of lure shown in prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,640,041, and comprises a generally V-shaped wire body, with a hook attached at one end of the wire and a lead weight molded around the hook/wire connection. The other end of the V-shaped wire has one or more spinner blades attached, by clevises, swivels, snaps, or the like. These blades generally have a hole at one end to enable the attachment while the other end of the blade is free to spin, generating the flash and vibration. Such lures have a great amount of versatility and have great popularity under a wide variety of fishing conditions, but all use some type of spinner blade.